The Chiefs, Oceania’s Wildcard Representative Fails To Progress

Earlier today the League of Legends’ International Wildcard Qualifiers’ (IWCQ) group stage concluded in São Paulo, Brazil. The top four teams will be progressing to the playoff bracket which will be played at Ópera de Arame in Curitiba. Unfortunately, the Oceanic representatives — the Chiefs Esports Club, failed to breach the top four and will not be making the trip to Curitiba.

The six days of competition saw the Chiefs conclude with a 3-4 record, placing them sixth among the seven other regional teams. This international campaign seemed hopeful for the Oceanic team as they saw three victories over four games by day three. After suffering a hard loss to eventual first seed, Lyon Gaming on day four, Chiefs were in a dire situation when they were faced with Dark Passage the subsequent day. In an unfortunate turn of events, Simon “Swiffer” Papamarkos, and the rest of the Chiefs were forced off what looked like the game-winning push into the Turkish team’s base. Despite the gold and minon advantage, the Chiefs fumbled under the pressure and got aced in the middle of Summoner’s Rift leading to their defeat at 50 minutes.

Oceania’s fate was left in the hands of Saigon Jokers, the last placed team tasked with upsetting the local Brazilian champions, INTZ Esports. The Jokers eventually left the tournament winless and with that result they sealed the top four teams, Chiefs failed to qualify.

This morning was the final day of groups, given the set bracket the Chiefs were looking to leave Brazil with a feel good win against Japan’s Rampage who were in a similar position. Bryce “EGym” Paule broke out the Brand support pocket pick popularised by the CIS region and their representatives, Albus NoX Luna. The surprise factor failed to pay off, and the Chiefs fell once again succumbing to overaggressive tendencies.

Group stage final standings*:

Lyon Gaming – Latin America North, 6W-1L

INTZ Esports – Brazil, 5W-2L

Dark Passage – Turkey, 5W-2L

Albus NoX Luna – Commonwealth of Independent States, 5W-2L

Rampage – Japan, 3W-4L

The Chiefs Esports Club – Oceania, 3W-4L

Kaos Latin Gamers – Latin America South, 1W-6L

Saigon Jokers – South East Asia, 0W-7L

The International Wildcard Qualifiers playoff bracket begins on Sunday, September 4 featuring the matchups of Lyon Gaming against Albus NoX Luna then INTZ Esports vs Dark Passage. The finals of IWCQ will be held on Monday, September 5 from Ópera de Arame in front of a live audience. The two qualifying finalists will go on to be the Wildcard representatives for the World Championship which begins at the end of September. Both days will be streamed through LoL Esports official stream page. For more information, scheduling details and VODs of previous games can be found on the official IWCQ 2016 website.

*Standings are based on head-to-head records to break tiebreaker situations.

Hi, I'm San and I'm Press Start's resident esports guy. I grew up with Nintendo games in my youth starting with classics from the N64. Eventually, I found myself loving gaming so much that I went on to study games at university (for a while) and produced a number of gaming podcasts over the years. I have a fondness for solid multiplayer, am a bit too competitive and I adore indies. League of Legends and Chrono Cross are my jam.